This chapter shows the importance of recognizing the probabilistic nature of medical diagnosis and treatment. It discusses the possibly serious effects of physicians not understanding Bayes theorem, ...
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This chapter shows the importance of recognizing the probabilistic nature of medical diagnosis and treatment. It discusses the possibly serious effects of physicians not understanding Bayes theorem, and hence, not appreciating the importance of knowing the prevalence of a disorder in the population to be treated or screened. It shows the importance of doctors knowing about volume-outcome studies, geographical variation studies, and practice guidelines.Less

What Doctors Must Know about Medical Practice

Bernard GertCharles M. CulverK. Danner Clouser

Published in print: 2006-03-09

This chapter shows the importance of recognizing the probabilistic nature of medical diagnosis and treatment. It discusses the possibly serious effects of physicians not understanding Bayes theorem, and hence, not appreciating the importance of knowing the prevalence of a disorder in the population to be treated or screened. It shows the importance of doctors knowing about volume-outcome studies, geographical variation studies, and practice guidelines.

This second part of the book turns to an examination of the conditions under which it is morally justifiable to exercise political power to enforce international law in the pursuit of justice. Ch. 5 ...
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This second part of the book turns to an examination of the conditions under which it is morally justifiable to exercise political power to enforce international law in the pursuit of justice. Ch. 5 develops a justice‐based conception of political legitimacy, where “political legitimacy” is defined as follows: An entity has political legitimacy if and only if it is morally justified in exercising political power, where the exercise of political power may, in turn, be defined as the (credible) attempt to achieve supremacy in the making, application, and enforcement of laws within a jurisdiction. It is argued that an entity that exercises political power is morally justified in doing so only if it meets a minimal standard of justice, understood as the protection of basic human rights. The conception of political legitimacy offered is meant to be perfectly general, and applies to any entity that wields political power, whether at the state, regional, or international level; it is used again in Chs 6–8. The eight sections of the chapter are: I. Political Legitimacy and the Morality of Political Power; The Irrelevance of the Idea that We Owe Compliance to the Government; III. Explaining the Preoccupation with the Government's Right to be Obeyed; IV. Toward a Theory of Political Legitimacy; V. Why Should Some Persons Rather than Others Wield Political Power?; VI. Democracy and Mutual Obligations among Citizens; and VIII. Conclusions.Less

Political Legitimacy 1

Allen Buchanan

Published in print: 2003-08-21

This second part of the book turns to an examination of the conditions under which it is morally justifiable to exercise political power to enforce international law in the pursuit of justice. Ch. 5 develops a justice‐based conception of political legitimacy, where “political legitimacy” is defined as follows: An entity has political legitimacy if and only if it is morally justified in exercising political power, where the exercise of political power may, in turn, be defined as the (credible) attempt to achieve supremacy in the making, application, and enforcement of laws within a jurisdiction. It is argued that an entity that exercises political power is morally justified in doing so only if it meets a minimal standard of justice, understood as the protection of basic human rights. The conception of political legitimacy offered is meant to be perfectly general, and applies to any entity that wields political power, whether at the state, regional, or international level; it is used again in Chs 6–8. The eight sections of the chapter are: I. Political Legitimacy and the Morality of Political Power; The Irrelevance of the Idea that We Owe Compliance to the Government; III. Explaining the Preoccupation with the Government's Right to be Obeyed; IV. Toward a Theory of Political Legitimacy; V. Why Should Some Persons Rather than Others Wield Political Power?; VI. Democracy and Mutual Obligations among Citizens; and VIII. Conclusions.

This chapter begins with a discussion of the private world problem, and argues that with or without sensations, the spectre of the ‘private world’ arises equally, so sensations are not the problem if ...
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This chapter begins with a discussion of the private world problem, and argues that with or without sensations, the spectre of the ‘private world’ arises equally, so sensations are not the problem if there is a ‘private world problem’. It is also argued that the role of knowledge of behaviour (or what a sensation is ‘apt to cause’) and/or physical circumstances (or that by which the sensation is ‘apt to be caused’) needs better understanding. The rejection of analogical ways of thinking about the experiences of others and the complementary fixation on public, observable, shared behaviour and circumstances leads — when carried to its fair conclusion — to a second joke, which is explained in the chapter.Less

Two Jokes Explained

C. B. Martin

Published in print: 2007-11-01

This chapter begins with a discussion of the private world problem, and argues that with or without sensations, the spectre of the ‘private world’ arises equally, so sensations are not the problem if there is a ‘private world problem’. It is also argued that the role of knowledge of behaviour (or what a sensation is ‘apt to cause’) and/or physical circumstances (or that by which the sensation is ‘apt to be caused’) needs better understanding. The rejection of analogical ways of thinking about the experiences of others and the complementary fixation on public, observable, shared behaviour and circumstances leads — when carried to its fair conclusion — to a second joke, which is explained in the chapter.

This chapter reads Ola Rotimi's The Gods are Not to Blame as an allegory of colonization and decolonization and revises the established reading of the play as a representation of the Nigerian Civil ...
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This chapter reads Ola Rotimi's The Gods are Not to Blame as an allegory of colonization and decolonization and revises the established reading of the play as a representation of the Nigerian Civil War. The protagonist's patricide is understood as the slaying of the colonial father at the moment of independence, and the ensuing incest is the intimate embrace between the hero of national liberation and what the despatched colonizer leaves behind, namely his culture. This relationship is incestuous because the liberating hero is already a partial product of colonial culture. Political decolonization is thus staged as the easy part, while cultural decolonization is dramatized as impossible because the incestuous embrace produces issue. This issue is not only the children in the play but also the play itself. As such, the play is a product of an indigenous and a colonial culture. Ethnic aggression, as both colonization and civil war, is thus characterised as fighting oneself.Less

Back to the Motherland: Ola Rotimi's The Gods Are Not To Blame

Barbara GoffMichael Simpson

Published in print: 2007-12-01

This chapter reads Ola Rotimi's The Gods are Not to Blame as an allegory of colonization and decolonization and revises the established reading of the play as a representation of the Nigerian Civil War. The protagonist's patricide is understood as the slaying of the colonial father at the moment of independence, and the ensuing incest is the intimate embrace between the hero of national liberation and what the despatched colonizer leaves behind, namely his culture. This relationship is incestuous because the liberating hero is already a partial product of colonial culture. Political decolonization is thus staged as the easy part, while cultural decolonization is dramatized as impossible because the incestuous embrace produces issue. This issue is not only the children in the play but also the play itself. As such, the play is a product of an indigenous and a colonial culture. Ethnic aggression, as both colonization and civil war, is thus characterised as fighting oneself.

Starting from the premise that Aristotelian explanation proceeds via the concepts of natures and potentials (and not, say, laws), this chapter argues that for Aristotle the generation of a living ...
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Starting from the premise that Aristotelian explanation proceeds via the concepts of natures and potentials (and not, say, laws), this chapter argues that for Aristotle the generation of a living organism is not the actualization of the natures and potentials of the materials from which organisms develop, but rather the actualization of a primitive, irreducible potential to produce out of the appropriate materials an organism of a certain form. Each of the major texts in which Aristotle defends his natural teleology is shown to argue for or presuppose that material causes are insufficient to produce such an end. Aristotle's teleology is thus is an empirical thesis and not an a priori one brought to nature. A Postscript articulates various aspects of this view more precisely, showing that a part is for the sake of something only if it has come to be for the sake of something.Less

Aristotle's Conception of Final Causality

Allan Gotthelf

Published in print: 2012-01-26

Starting from the premise that Aristotelian explanation proceeds via the concepts of natures and potentials (and not, say, laws), this chapter argues that for Aristotle the generation of a living organism is not the actualization of the natures and potentials of the materials from which organisms develop, but rather the actualization of a primitive, irreducible potential to produce out of the appropriate materials an organism of a certain form. Each of the major texts in which Aristotle defends his natural teleology is shown to argue for or presuppose that material causes are insufficient to produce such an end. Aristotle's teleology is thus is an empirical thesis and not an a priori one brought to nature. A Postscript articulates various aspects of this view more precisely, showing that a part is for the sake of something only if it has come to be for the sake of something.

The ministry and mission of the Christian Church since the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., is examined in this chapter. Topics explored include the black church’s shift from protest to ...
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The ministry and mission of the Christian Church since the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., is examined in this chapter. Topics explored include the black church’s shift from protest to politics, the public resurgence and politicization of the white church, the rise of the megachurch phenomenon, and the retreat from King’s prophetic model of the church by major black and white church leaders. King’s prophetic model of the church is employed in a critique of the entrepreneurial Christianity and prosperity gospel of the megachurch phenomenon. The chapter emphatically concludes that King’s ecclesial model provides the best possibilities for the renewal and revitalization of the Christian church in the twenty-first century.Less

To Be Maladjusted : A Kingian Model for Church Renewal

Lewis V. Baldwin

Published in print: 2010-09-23

The ministry and mission of the Christian Church since the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., is examined in this chapter. Topics explored include the black church’s shift from protest to politics, the public resurgence and politicization of the white church, the rise of the megachurch phenomenon, and the retreat from King’s prophetic model of the church by major black and white church leaders. King’s prophetic model of the church is employed in a critique of the entrepreneurial Christianity and prosperity gospel of the megachurch phenomenon. The chapter emphatically concludes that King’s ecclesial model provides the best possibilities for the renewal and revitalization of the Christian church in the twenty-first century.

Unlike Fear and Trembling, Kierkegaard affixes his name to Concluding Unscientific Postscript, as the ‘editor’, thereby signalling his close affinity to the position outlined by the book’s pseudonym ...
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Unlike Fear and Trembling, Kierkegaard affixes his name to Concluding Unscientific Postscript, as the ‘editor’, thereby signalling his close affinity to the position outlined by the book’s pseudonym Johannes Climacus. Kierkegaard himself, in The Point of View for My Work as an Author, tells us that he placed his name on the title page as a signal of the similarity of Climacus’s views to his own. Indeed, Climacus provides a formal structure that can be used to illuminate what Kierkegaard says in his own voice in Works of Love and elsewhere. From Climacus in Concluding Unscientific Postscript – and from Kierkegaard himself in Purity of Heart Is to Will One Thing – we have a conception of the ethical life as a life that involves a relationship with God. This knowledge of God, however, is not rooted in God’s revelation in history but is, instead, rooted in the individual’s own conscience.Less

The Ethical Task as the Human Task

C. Stephen Evans

Published in print: 2004-09-09

Unlike Fear and Trembling, Kierkegaard affixes his name to Concluding Unscientific Postscript, as the ‘editor’, thereby signalling his close affinity to the position outlined by the book’s pseudonym Johannes Climacus. Kierkegaard himself, in The Point of View for My Work as an Author, tells us that he placed his name on the title page as a signal of the similarity of Climacus’s views to his own. Indeed, Climacus provides a formal structure that can be used to illuminate what Kierkegaard says in his own voice in Works of Love and elsewhere. From Climacus in Concluding Unscientific Postscript – and from Kierkegaard himself in Purity of Heart Is to Will One Thing – we have a conception of the ethical life as a life that involves a relationship with God. This knowledge of God, however, is not rooted in God’s revelation in history but is, instead, rooted in the individual’s own conscience.

Due to globalization, States are increasingly affected by external factors, whilst at the same time influencing the behaviour of individuals and firms, including foreign investors. Their decisions ...
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Due to globalization, States are increasingly affected by external factors, whilst at the same time influencing the behaviour of individuals and firms, including foreign investors. Their decisions produce binding effects, for example, when an authorization is issued or refused. The question thus arises whether procedural safeguards aiming at achieving due process of law may be regarded as minimum standards that must be observed. This chapter first looks at the history of ideas and argues that the works of Montesquieu, Smith, and Tocqueville show that the idea of general principles of law is not necessarily in contrast with the recognition of particularities. Then, it observes that, as far as administrative adjudication is concerned, some common standards emerged within the OECD, both as a result of common developments and as a consequence of the action of multilateral institutions. It suggests, therefore, that an ‘echelle des garantie’ may be identified.Less

Giacinto della Cananea

Published in print: 2010-10-14

Due to globalization, States are increasingly affected by external factors, whilst at the same time influencing the behaviour of individuals and firms, including foreign investors. Their decisions produce binding effects, for example, when an authorization is issued or refused. The question thus arises whether procedural safeguards aiming at achieving due process of law may be regarded as minimum standards that must be observed. This chapter first looks at the history of ideas and argues that the works of Montesquieu, Smith, and Tocqueville show that the idea of general principles of law is not necessarily in contrast with the recognition of particularities. Then, it observes that, as far as administrative adjudication is concerned, some common standards emerged within the OECD, both as a result of common developments and as a consequence of the action of multilateral institutions. It suggests, therefore, that an ‘echelle des garantie’ may be identified.

In Chapter 6, I consider in more detail how the grasp of gestalts contributes to reasonable decision-making, in particular (1) by non-human animals that have conscious experiences somewhat like ours, ...
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In Chapter 6, I consider in more detail how the grasp of gestalts contributes to reasonable decision-making, in particular (1) by non-human animals that have conscious experiences somewhat like ours, (2) in making aesthetic judgments, and (3) in plausible reasoning generally. My conclusion is that indeed our reasonable decision-making utilises conscious experiences in which we grasp and respond to whole feature-rich gestalts in ways that are not determined by laws or rules.Less

How Gestalts Promote Rationality

David Hodgson

Published in print: 2012-01-04

In Chapter 6, I consider in more detail how the grasp of gestalts contributes to reasonable decision-making, in particular (1) by non-human animals that have conscious experiences somewhat like ours, (2) in making aesthetic judgments, and (3) in plausible reasoning generally. My conclusion is that indeed our reasonable decision-making utilises conscious experiences in which we grasp and respond to whole feature-rich gestalts in ways that are not determined by laws or rules.

As we attempt to understand the notion of ‘life as a text’ through examining what Stein referred to as ‘how to be’ in relation to the role of art in this query, the relation between life and art is ...
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As we attempt to understand the notion of ‘life as a text’ through examining what Stein referred to as ‘how to be’ in relation to the role of art in this query, the relation between life and art is reversed since, in contrast with the then prototext of myth as an alternative world view and manner of behaviour, the prototext in the late phase involves ideas of romance, fictionality, and illusion. The post-modernist conception of ‘textuality’, as used in the context of the latter phase, makes Nietzsche’s scepticism its reference, as well as the notion of ‘the will of illusion’. This chapter looks into the viewpoint of both Vaihinger and Nietzsche in analysing the ‘textual’ stage in the evolution and developments in Conrad’S writings.Less

The Failure of Textuality

Daphna Erdinast-Vulcan

Published in print: 1991-08-15

As we attempt to understand the notion of ‘life as a text’ through examining what Stein referred to as ‘how to be’ in relation to the role of art in this query, the relation between life and art is reversed since, in contrast with the then prototext of myth as an alternative world view and manner of behaviour, the prototext in the late phase involves ideas of romance, fictionality, and illusion. The post-modernist conception of ‘textuality’, as used in the context of the latter phase, makes Nietzsche’s scepticism its reference, as well as the notion of ‘the will of illusion’. This chapter looks into the viewpoint of both Vaihinger and Nietzsche in analysing the ‘textual’ stage in the evolution and developments in Conrad’S writings.

This chapter links the problems posed by value pluralism with those posed by moral conflict and aims to apply the solutions T. H. Green offers to the latter in the case of the former. The argument is ...
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This chapter links the problems posed by value pluralism with those posed by moral conflict and aims to apply the solutions T. H. Green offers to the latter in the case of the former. The argument is that Green's analysis of moral action yields useful strategies for resolving moral conflicts and these strategies can in turn be applied in tackling the tensions arising when living in a value pluralist social environment. The British idealist distinguishes between an ‘epistemological’ aspect (knowledge of the right thing to do) and a ‘volitional’ aspect (commitment to do the right thing) of moral action, where the ‘volitional’ aspect plays a crucial role in resolving moral conflicts. It is this aspect of moral action that contemporary liberals like Rawls and Nagel fail to theorise and as a result lose crucial resources for easing the strains of living in a pluralist society.Less

Published in print: 2006-06-01

This chapter links the problems posed by value pluralism with those posed by moral conflict and aims to apply the solutions T. H. Green offers to the latter in the case of the former. The argument is that Green's analysis of moral action yields useful strategies for resolving moral conflicts and these strategies can in turn be applied in tackling the tensions arising when living in a value pluralist social environment. The British idealist distinguishes between an ‘epistemological’ aspect (knowledge of the right thing to do) and a ‘volitional’ aspect (commitment to do the right thing) of moral action, where the ‘volitional’ aspect plays a crucial role in resolving moral conflicts. It is this aspect of moral action that contemporary liberals like Rawls and Nagel fail to theorise and as a result lose crucial resources for easing the strains of living in a pluralist society.

This chapter refutes the two possible arguments for Quine’s criterion for what a discourse is committed to: (1) the triviality thesis, that “there is” as used in ordinary language indicates ...
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This chapter refutes the two possible arguments for Quine’s criterion for what a discourse is committed to: (1) the triviality thesis, that “there is” as used in ordinary language indicates ontological commitment, and this idiom is straightforwardly regimented by the objectual existential quantifier, (2) that the semantics of objectual quantification presupposes ontological commitment. Seven strategies for supporting the triviality thesis are reviewed, including paraphrase in ordinary language and the pretense program.Less

Criteria for the Ontological Commitments of Discourse

Jody Azzouni

Published in print: 2004-02-12

This chapter refutes the two possible arguments for Quine’s criterion for what a discourse is committed to: (1) the triviality thesis, that “there is” as used in ordinary language indicates ontological commitment, and this idiom is straightforwardly regimented by the objectual existential quantifier, (2) that the semantics of objectual quantification presupposes ontological commitment. Seven strategies for supporting the triviality thesis are reviewed, including paraphrase in ordinary language and the pretense program.

Velleman defends a position intermediate between moral rationalism and arationalism. Like the moral rationalist, he maintains that only irrational agents act immorally. Like the arationalist, he ...
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Velleman defends a position intermediate between moral rationalism and arationalism. Like the moral rationalist, he maintains that only irrational agents act immorally. Like the arationalist, he maintains that some immoral acts are not irrational; immorality is not always contrary to the dictates of practical reason. Velleman motivates his arationalism by considering “hard cases”‘ of agents allegedly lacking reason to be moral. The chapter defends an orthodox Kantian view, arguing that Velleman misdescribes the reasons the hard cases have. It is argued that every autonomous agent has reason to be moral. This follows from Velleman's conception of practical reason as having the aim of self-understanding. This is because there are constraints on the explanations an autonomous agent can employ to make sense of her behavior. Only when an agent acts from considerations that can be willed as universal law can those considerations render the behavior intelligible while being compatible with the agent being self-determining in acting as she did. The chapter concludes by briefly discussing the problem of conflicting requirements and Velleman's argument against the claim that morality is self-imposed.Less

An Uncompromising Connection Between Practical Reason and Morality

Michael Nelson

Published in print: 2012-12-06

Velleman defends a position intermediate between moral rationalism and arationalism. Like the moral rationalist, he maintains that only irrational agents act immorally. Like the arationalist, he maintains that some immoral acts are not irrational; immorality is not always contrary to the dictates of practical reason. Velleman motivates his arationalism by considering “hard cases”‘ of agents allegedly lacking reason to be moral. The chapter defends an orthodox Kantian view, arguing that Velleman misdescribes the reasons the hard cases have. It is argued that every autonomous agent has reason to be moral. This follows from Velleman's conception of practical reason as having the aim of self-understanding. This is because there are constraints on the explanations an autonomous agent can employ to make sense of her behavior. Only when an agent acts from considerations that can be willed as universal law can those considerations render the behavior intelligible while being compatible with the agent being self-determining in acting as she did. The chapter concludes by briefly discussing the problem of conflicting requirements and Velleman's argument against the claim that morality is self-imposed.

The task of classifying contradictory pairs continues in the chapters that follow, but no new exceptions to RCP are found. Here, assertions are examined and their contradictory pairs set out, ...
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The task of classifying contradictory pairs continues in the chapters that follow, but no new exceptions to RCP are found. Here, assertions are examined and their contradictory pairs set out, beginning with the most basic, in which ’is’ is added to a name. Next the role of the verb ’to be’ as an ’additional predicate’ is seen, in sentences such as ’man is just’, and finally assertions are considered in which there is no ’to be’, and a verb is simply added to a name. Contradictory pairs are examined which involve the use of negative subjects as well as negative predicates, universally and non‐universally. We see here a careful discussion of the different ways in which negation can be applied in a sentence, and guidance on how to tell which assertions are the contradictories of which others.Less

Chapter 10: Three Types of Assertions

C. W. A. Whitaker

Published in print: 2002-09-19

The task of classifying contradictory pairs continues in the chapters that follow, but no new exceptions to RCP are found. Here, assertions are examined and their contradictory pairs set out, beginning with the most basic, in which ’is’ is added to a name. Next the role of the verb ’to be’ as an ’additional predicate’ is seen, in sentences such as ’man is just’, and finally assertions are considered in which there is no ’to be’, and a verb is simply added to a name. Contradictory pairs are examined which involve the use of negative subjects as well as negative predicates, universally and non‐universally. We see here a careful discussion of the different ways in which negation can be applied in a sentence, and guidance on how to tell which assertions are the contradictories of which others.

Chapter 1 introduces Profit Power—the ability to retain your own profitability and extract returns from others; and use the leverage that derives from it to orchestrate business relationships and to ...
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Chapter 1 introduces Profit Power—the ability to retain your own profitability and extract returns from others; and use the leverage that derives from it to orchestrate business relationships and to win over competitors and customers—and asserts that profit power is the key to achieving extraordinary returns. Being best is not good enough. The sources of profit power are called power nodes. This chapter provides concrete examples of how power nodes work to produce extraordinary returns.Less

The Power Node Strategy

Mia de Kuijper

Published in print: 2009-10-01

Chapter 1 introduces Profit Power—the ability to retain your own profitability and extract returns from others; and use the leverage that derives from it to orchestrate business relationships and to win over competitors and customers—and asserts that profit power is the key to achieving extraordinary returns. Being best is not good enough. The sources of profit power are called power nodes. This chapter provides concrete examples of how power nodes work to produce extraordinary returns.

The Council on Interracial Books for Children (CIBC) was founded in the mid-1960s by a group of Old Left activists. The Council, whose members helped to make children's literature more genuinely ...
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The Council on Interracial Books for Children (CIBC) was founded in the mid-1960s by a group of Old Left activists. The Council, whose members helped to make children's literature more genuinely representative of American life and cultural diversity, also helped to link the Old Left and the New Left, or the radical generations of the 1930s and the 1960s. Linking undertakings like Scholastic's Firebird Books program (a project of Lilian Moore, a founder of the CIBC) which highlighted the contributions of racial minorities to American life with the popular book, record, and television special, Free to Be You and Me, which challenged gender stereotyping the epilogue focuses on the new terrain of children's books in the 1960s, 1970s, and beyond. The work of left-wingers in the children's book field throughout the most repressive years of the Cold War points to the counter-hegemonic impulses that may thrive even during periods that seem to foreclose dissent.Less

Epilogue : Transforming an “All-White World”

Julia L. Mickenberg

Published in print: 2005-11-10

The Council on Interracial Books for Children (CIBC) was founded in the mid-1960s by a group of Old Left activists. The Council, whose members helped to make children's literature more genuinely representative of American life and cultural diversity, also helped to link the Old Left and the New Left, or the radical generations of the 1930s and the 1960s. Linking undertakings like Scholastic's Firebird Books program (a project of Lilian Moore, a founder of the CIBC) which highlighted the contributions of racial minorities to American life with the popular book, record, and television special, Free to Be You and Me, which challenged gender stereotyping the epilogue focuses on the new terrain of children's books in the 1960s, 1970s, and beyond. The work of left-wingers in the children's book field throughout the most repressive years of the Cold War points to the counter-hegemonic impulses that may thrive even during periods that seem to foreclose dissent.

If we look beyond the literature that deals specifically with money and finance, we find a much wider range of interpretations of the causes of our present troubles. To underline the point that ...
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If we look beyond the literature that deals specifically with money and finance, we find a much wider range of interpretations of the causes of our present troubles. To underline the point that decisions in international money and finance have generally been accorded too limited a place in our understanding, it may be useful to attempt a sort of plain person’s guide to the full range of contending interpretations of the events of recent years. This is the more necessary because many people deeply concerned with our predicament have neither the time nor the patience to go through them all at length, and also because people tend to read the literature of their own profession or field of interest and that of their own political persuasion. A guide that takes in as wide range of prejudices and perceptions as possible may therefore be useful. The interpretations that tend to dismiss the monetary and financial aspects of world economic disorder as unimportant seem to fall into two groups: those that put the main stress and blame for disorder on weaknesses in trade policies, and those which avoid putting the blame anywhere in particular by offering one or other form of determinist versions of recent economic history.Less

Some other interpretations

Susan Strange

Published in print: 2015-12-01

If we look beyond the literature that deals specifically with money and finance, we find a much wider range of interpretations of the causes of our present troubles. To underline the point that decisions in international money and finance have generally been accorded too limited a place in our understanding, it may be useful to attempt a sort of plain person’s guide to the full range of contending interpretations of the events of recent years. This is the more necessary because many people deeply concerned with our predicament have neither the time nor the patience to go through them all at length, and also because people tend to read the literature of their own profession or field of interest and that of their own political persuasion. A guide that takes in as wide range of prejudices and perceptions as possible may therefore be useful. The interpretations that tend to dismiss the monetary and financial aspects of world economic disorder as unimportant seem to fall into two groups: those that put the main stress and blame for disorder on weaknesses in trade policies, and those which avoid putting the blame anywhere in particular by offering one or other form of determinist versions of recent economic history.

Chapter 4 examines the limits of the position of the Luxembourg Courts on participation, by analysing their case law on the right to be heard in the adoption of administrative decisions. This ...
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Chapter 4 examines the limits of the position of the Luxembourg Courts on participation, by analysing their case law on the right to be heard in the adoption of administrative decisions. This analysis is introduced by a brief overview of how the procedural protection of the individual has been devised in European law. This overview draws on the relationship between procedural protection and judicial review, characterises the general approach of the European legislator in this regard, and highlights the importance of the Courts' role in the development of participation rights. It is shown, in particular, how the Courts' stance has been predetermined by the conception of the procedure as entailing a bilateral relationship between the deciding body and the addressee of the decision or, more generally, the persons thereby affected.Less

EU Administrative Action, Procedural Guarantees, and Participation

Joana Mendes

Published in print: 2011-03-01

Chapter 4 examines the limits of the position of the Luxembourg Courts on participation, by analysing their case law on the right to be heard in the adoption of administrative decisions. This analysis is introduced by a brief overview of how the procedural protection of the individual has been devised in European law. This overview draws on the relationship between procedural protection and judicial review, characterises the general approach of the European legislator in this regard, and highlights the importance of the Courts' role in the development of participation rights. It is shown, in particular, how the Courts' stance has been predetermined by the conception of the procedure as entailing a bilateral relationship between the deciding body and the addressee of the decision or, more generally, the persons thereby affected.

This chapter describes a cluster of action films that Johnnie To produced for Milkyway Image, the production company that he founded in 1996. It starts with a discussion with Beyond Hypothermia, a ...
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This chapter describes a cluster of action films that Johnnie To produced for Milkyway Image, the production company that he founded in 1996. It starts with a discussion with Beyond Hypothermia, a film released in 1996 and produced by To under a separate independent entity (the film was eventually affixed under the Milkyway banner after the setting up of the company and was released as a Milkyway film). It also addresses how the films Beyond Hypothermia, Too Many Ways to Be Number One (1997), The Odd One Dies (1997), The Longest Nite (1998), and Expect the Unexpected (1998), corroborate, reaffirm, and depart from the sum and substance of To's cinema. These films are all the more outstanding in that they were made in a spirit of creative freedom and apparently not much constraint over market considerations. The Milkyway films earned To his greatest critical acclaim thus far but, ironically, he was credited on these films as producer.Less

Nucleus of the Milky Way

Stephen Teo

Published in print: 1993-07-29

This chapter describes a cluster of action films that Johnnie To produced for Milkyway Image, the production company that he founded in 1996. It starts with a discussion with Beyond Hypothermia, a film released in 1996 and produced by To under a separate independent entity (the film was eventually affixed under the Milkyway banner after the setting up of the company and was released as a Milkyway film). It also addresses how the films Beyond Hypothermia, Too Many Ways to Be Number One (1997), The Odd One Dies (1997), The Longest Nite (1998), and Expect the Unexpected (1998), corroborate, reaffirm, and depart from the sum and substance of To's cinema. These films are all the more outstanding in that they were made in a spirit of creative freedom and apparently not much constraint over market considerations. The Milkyway films earned To his greatest critical acclaim thus far but, ironically, he was credited on these films as producer.

We have seen that increased uncertainty has produced a marked hypertrophy of financial markets and financial dealing, much of it speculative in character. It has also increased the inequality in ...
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We have seen that increased uncertainty has produced a marked hypertrophy of financial markets and financial dealing, much of it speculative in character. It has also increased the inequality in competition between large enterprises and small ones. And it has altered the balance – so vital to any stable market system – between authority and market, with the result that authority has been undermined and markets made more volatile. Yet these consequences were masked for too long by some important misperceptions, mostly promulgated by academics, about what was really going on and what consequences followed. Some of those misperceptions have been shown up. Other persist. But the general effect has been gradually to extend the area of significant ignorance – significant, that is, from the point of view of political control and supervision of the economic and financial system. That control and supervision requires knowlege, and as change accelerates and the markets and national monetary systems become more integrated into a global system, the nature of the required knowledge increases and changes. It is in the light of these broad conclusions that we have to review and weigh the various remedies and reform plans that have been put forward to bring the system under better control.Less

The guessing game

Susan Strange

Published in print: 2015-12-01

We have seen that increased uncertainty has produced a marked hypertrophy of financial markets and financial dealing, much of it speculative in character. It has also increased the inequality in competition between large enterprises and small ones. And it has altered the balance – so vital to any stable market system – between authority and market, with the result that authority has been undermined and markets made more volatile. Yet these consequences were masked for too long by some important misperceptions, mostly promulgated by academics, about what was really going on and what consequences followed. Some of those misperceptions have been shown up. Other persist. But the general effect has been gradually to extend the area of significant ignorance – significant, that is, from the point of view of political control and supervision of the economic and financial system. That control and supervision requires knowlege, and as change accelerates and the markets and national monetary systems become more integrated into a global system, the nature of the required knowledge increases and changes. It is in the light of these broad conclusions that we have to review and weigh the various remedies and reform plans that have been put forward to bring the system under better control.